Such a method and a device of this type are known from DE 196 26 826 A1. The known device contains a lifting head by means of which items already packed into shipping boxes can be palletized. The boxes with the items packed in them enter the working range of the lifting head via a plurality of linear conveyors and are picked up by the lifting head and put down onto pallets. This citation does not describe how and by means of which machines the items are packed into the boxes. Furthermore, it is not necessary to rotate the boxes in the known device.
DE 200 21 874 describes a device for palletizing and depalletizing articles onto and from pallets in layers. The device contains a plurality of load take-up devices for transferring the articles to and from a pallet, where the load take-up device can be controlled to move vertically as well as horizontally. The transfer station contains a first and a second transfer device which are each provided with separate controlled motor drives which can operate independently. No packaging device, nor any devices by means of which the articles can be rotated, if necessary, are obvious.
In prior art, other packaging plants are known, in particular from the beverage filling industry, where at least one packaging machine that preferably operates continuously is linked to a palletizer that normally operates discontinuously for arranging shipping units standing on pallets via intermediate conveyors, means for rotating and/or distributing packing units to various conveyor paths, and collecting means for forming layers of pack unit loads. Disadvantageously, this connecting section between the packaging machine and the downstream palletizer is often very space consuming, as on the one hand buffer paths must be provided due to the transition from a continuously operating machine to a discontinuously operating machine, and as, in particular in case of packaging machines including a downstream thermal treatment unit, such as e.g. a shrink tunnel, there often exists a basic condition that, in case of a downstream plant failure e.g. in the area of the palletizer, it must be possible to drive empty at least through such a shrink tunnel. The comparably large space requirement for this as well as the limitation of the palletizer's production performance due to the discontinuous mode of operation are felt to be disadvantageous.